Flickr: Note this!

This is the second of what I hope will be an irregular series of posts on using photosharing websites in the classroom. (The first post was Getting to know you... with Flickr.) This time I want to focus on the notes feature provided by Flickr. Notes specify a rectangular area of a picture to which you attach some text. When the pointer is on the rectangle, you see the text. If the pointer is on the picture, but not on a note, you see where all the rectangles are. If the pointer is not on the picture, you see it without any indication of where the notes are so that you can enjoy the picture without visual interruptions.

Computer Room,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir.

This is probably better felt than telt as we say in Scotland. (Stop me and ask for a translation if you are stumped by the Scots language.) Follow the link to the picture of the Computer room and have a look at the comments under the picture, but especially take the time to look at the notes on the picture itself.

The picture of one of our computing labs. It was posted as an example of an exercise we wanted the students to try on their first school placement. We wanted them to think about the layout of the computer lab in the school and to think about alternative layouts. We wanted them to consider what was good about the organisation of the room and what could make it better? We asked each student to take a picture of a lab and post it with some comments. The other students were then asked to add further comments and questions, but in particular we asked them to leave notes on the picture itself.

The notes feature allows very specific parts of the picture to be highlighted and allows concise, but targeted, comments to be made. In the sample picture shown above, I created all the notes, but in the students' pictures they left notes on each other's photos to ask questions or make observations. I even started a spot the John Walsh book game (like spot the ball, but with the semi-ubiquitous Walsh book). The exercise seemed to work well and interesting and inciteful notes were added to the pictures posted.

Once again, it seemed wise to use a private Flickr group and strict guidelines were given about how to go about this exercise. Guidance included the instructions that there should be no pupils in the picture of the classroom and that the school should not be named or identifiable in any way. Also, they were to seek the permission of the teacher in charge of Computing, explaining what they were going to do, before taking any pictures.

I got the idea from Beth's Art class. I loved the way the students were sharing what they learned about the picture and the symbolism. {Rats! She has just uploaded a new painting and, as yet, there are no notes or comments. I guess a new class is starting soon, so hopefully notes will start to appear in the near future. Update: The new, uncommented picture is still there, but the old picture of "Central panel of the Merode Altarpiece by Campin", complete with notes and comments, is back!} There must be loads of uses for on-picture notes in the classroom. What about a student science project - take a picture of the experiment and add notes. Or take a picture of a student's craft work - other pupils can leave notes with questions about technique or their understanding of the work. Or a photo from a school trip of a public building or monument. Or a local area study. Or a picture of classroom wall display. Or... Do you get the picture? :-)

As before, I'd love to hear about ideas, or see more examples of this in action. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.

P.S. Ewan has just posted a picture of some Vikings and used it in a workshop session at a Modern Language in the Primary School Conference. He used it as an example of adding notes to a picture.

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Technorati Tags: EduFlickr, Flickr, photo sharing, education, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog

Another Meetup

Ewan is organising another Meetup, but this a time with a twist. Instead of just going for a chat and a meal, like we did at the eLive Meetup (see Flickr photos), this time he wants us to do some work too!

Details are a bit sketchy, but the plans are evolving over on the ScotEduBlog wiki. Go have a look and watch for an explanation of what Ewan has planned for us. More importantly, it's a wiki, so add your own responses and help shape the event to suit your own needs and interests.

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Technorati Tags: ScotEduBlog Meetup, ScotEduBlog wiki, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog

Credit where credit is due

I made a post this afternoon titled Teachers take the rap which was intended as a bit of fluff - the blogging equivalent of a one-liner. OK it was a long one-liner, but I posted it as much for my amusement as your illumination.

I started with a reference to David Cameron so, as a throw-away, I put in links to Tony Blair and Ming Campbell at the end.

When I got home tonight, I had a quick check of my blog's visitor statistics and was surprised to see who had visited:


Can you see entry number three? (Follow the link on the picture for a bigger version if you want a closer look.) Yes, visitor number three on this list came from Ming Campbell's website. Somebody at the Lib Dems is clearly on the ball, noticed I had linked to them and came for a look. I wonder if it was the man himself? :-) Well done the Lib Dems! So far, not a sausage from New Labour or the Conservatives.

I suppose it is possible that Ming follows my blog, looking for tips on his taxation policy... However, on this occasion, he didn't stay long:


(Again, follow the link on the photo for a larger, easier to read version.) Whoever it was came, spent 46 seconds looking around and then clicked my cluster map to see who else was visiting me.

So hats off to Ming Campbell's people. I've put in loads of links this time to see if I can tempt them back. Maybe next time they'll stay long enough to leave a comment. :-)

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Technorati Tags: humour, Ming Campbell, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog

Teachers take the rap

David Cameron, currently the leader of the opposition, has been giving Rap records and Radio 1 a hard time. He says they encourage a gun and knife culture... which is clearly a bad thing!

I heard an interview on the news today however where some expert was defending Rap. He said:

Rap isn't the cause of the problems. It's just an easy target to take a swing at.

OK, I agree with that.

There are deeper, social issues that need to be tackled.

Yep, still with you.

Instead of attacking Rap, politicians should be addressing these deeper issues.

Agree 100% so far.

So they should look to the sources of the problems. Look to the police service and education.

Ah... I see! So it's the teachers fault. :-)

Ho hum!

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Technorati Tags: education, Rap, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog

P.S. In the interests of political balance, I suppose I should also link to Tony Blair and Ming Campbell. :-)

P.P.S. My wife the English teacher says I may be misrepresenting the rap chap. He may have meant that education could be part of the solution rather than one of the causes. Possibly true, but it wouldn't have allowed the cheap joke in the above post. :-)

BPI and Russian MP3 sites

Warning on CD Case,
originally uploaded by Slin.

I made a post, Greedy and stupid, about how I resisted the temptation to buy music from a Russian download site. Well, I heard on the radio the other night that the BPI were starting legal action against one of these Russian sites. When pressed by the interviewer, the BPI spokesperson had to admit that they wouldn't be prosecuting anyone currently downloading from the site but encouraged music lovers to use legitimate download sources instead.

The interviewer asked why people should pay more to download something when it is not strictly illegal to get it at a fraction of the cost from these Russian sites? The BPI person did her best, and talked about rewarding the music producers so that they can continue to produce music, but it is a hard sell isn't it? Even talking to student teachers about illegal downloads gets a lot of, "Yes, of course it's illegal... but..." responses along with nods and winks and the implication of, "...but everybody does it, don't they?" How will we convince the children about information ethics if the people teaching them are not convinced?

It seems to me that this is an extension of the new literacy issues that David Warlick (among others) talks about. It's about respecting information producers. It's about not exploiting others and their work. It's about using information ethically.

How do we teach this stuff though? Do we take a "Just say no!" approach that the children ignore and many of the teachers seem unconvinced by themselves? I think we need something more radical, but I'm not sure what.

I heard about a project in a primary school. Each pupil in the class had built model houses and they all combined them to make a street - a little model community. Then they added other stuff to make this model community as attractive as they could - to make it the kind of place where they'd like to live. The morning after the had finished it, they came into the class to discover that their model community had been broken and covered with paint! There were tears, there was anger, there was a great deal of upset. Who could have spoiled their model community in this way? It was in fact the teacher! The teacher was giving an object lesson about vandalism and the effect that it has on others.

To be honest, I don't think I could bring myself to cause that level of lasting psychological damage just to make a teaching point, but is some sort of object lesson about the effect of downloading necessary? If so, what?

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Technorati Tags: information ethics, David Warlick, education, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog

Another student blog... sort of

When I posted my list of student blogs, there was one I missed out. I didn't omit it because I don't like the student - it's just that it isn't a blog about student things. The blog in question is The Life of Antoninus Pius and claims to be written by Antoninus Pius, that well known (deceased) Roman emperor!

When I first discovered his blog, the part that caught my eye was its description:

The philosophical ramblings of a long-deceased Roman emperor.

I thought it was going to be written in the persona of Antonius Pius and thought that sounded brilliant! However, it turns out that it is a place where the student considers all things ancient... especially all things ancient and Roman. Despite my limited (i.e. non-existent) knowledge of this subject, I find it an interesting read.

However, what if there was a blog written by a historical character? For example, wouldn't it be interesting to read a blog by Mary Queen of Scots - especially if you could read one for the corresponding time-period written by Queen Elizabeth?

Untitled,
originally uploaded by toru.k.

Of course, it doesn't have to be a historical character. It would be just as interesting to read a blog written by Atticus Finch while reading through To Kill a Mocking Bird with a class. Or what about a blog by Lennie from Of Mice and Men? ...OK, that one might not be such a good idea as it would be full of rabbits (well, mostly rabbits), but you get the idea... The teacher could write the blog or, depending on the age and stage of the class, it may be possible for the learners to create the blog themselves.

There must be examples of this sort of thing out there already. I know that what I should do is fire up Technorati or use the Google Blog Search tool and go look for examples but I've decided to take the easy way out ...er put the whole Connectivity thing to the test {Thinks: that sounds more educationally justifiable} and just ask if anybody knows of some good examples.

So, does anybody know what I'm talking about? Have you seen examples of blogs like this? Better still, have any of you been involved in the creation of blogs like this? I'd love to know how well it works in practice.

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Technorati Tags: blogging, education, classroom, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog

Getting to know you... with Flickr

Last year I was visiting a student and the conversation went something like this (names have been changed to protect the guilty):

Me: Peter did something like that, you should ask him for his worksheet.
Student: Who?
Me: Peter... you know, one of the twins.
Student: Twins? Are there twins in the class?
Me: Yes! They are identical. How could you not have noticed?
Student: Identical twins? Are you sure?

...And so it went on. I couldn't believe she hadn't noticed there were identical twins in the class. Not only did she not know - when she asked her friends, they hadn't noticed either. There were about thirty-six students in the class and they only came together in that particular grouping for about sixteen weeks out of a thirty-six week course. They didn't know each other! I had made the effort to get to know all of them, but forgot to give them the time and opportunity to get to know each other. Silly me! I had the same problem with a Personal and Social Education class the first time I taught one back when I was a real teacher but I clearly didn't learn the lesson.

David Muir,
originally uploaded by DavidDMuir.

Therefore, this year I thought we should make a deliberate effort to help the students get to know each other. One of the ideas we used was to set up a private Flickr group, post everyone's photos to it and invite the students to add their comments. To start the ball rolling, I posted and answered four questions on my own photo. The questions were:

1. The last film I watched in the cinema;
2. The last CD/piece of music I bought;
3. Favourite TV programme;
4. Favourite website.

I finished by saying, "Analysis of my warped personality based on this revealing list is awaited with anticipation." I also asked them to answer the same four questions on their own photos This seemed to work fairly well. Follow the link on the photo to see what I said and how the students responded. (The rest of the class photos are still in a private group.)

I like the way Flickr allows you to set up private groups. I created the group and then invited the students to join. Only the people I invited to the group can see the photos and make/read comments. I thought that it was important that this type of exercise takes place in private- just the class group. (Which is why I made my picture public only after getting the permission of the people who had left comments.)

As I said, this seemed to work well. Could this work with classes in schools? (Assuming of course that the photo sharing sites are not blocked in the school by your Authority!) Could you adapt it for getting to know other people? For example, at the start of a joint project with pupils from another school? Or children involved in an exchange visit? Or a "People that help us" project (lollipop person, classroom assistant, librarian, ...)? Do you get the picture? :-) Please leave a comment with other ideas, or describe your own getting to know you ideas if you've done this kind of thing already.

We have continued to use Flickr throughout the year and, if you are interested, I could make some more posts on classroom/educational uses of photo sharing websites. Do you want to see more?

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Technorati Tags: EduFlickr, Flickr, photo sharing, education, DavidDMuir, EdCompBlog

Postscript

I only recently noticed that there is an option in Flickr to display your most popular photographs according to how interesting Flickr thinks they are. Apparently my most interesting photograph is the one of Darth Tater. Second is a picture of a classroom (for reasons that are not entirely clear). However, the third most interesting picture in my collection is a photo of one of the students. I asked his permission to show you the screenshot here because the line underneath the photo's name amused me.

It says, "Nobody counts Colin McAlpine as a favorite". Harsh but fair? You be the judge. :-)